Fall in love with demos, yaks and baby seals // February Future Friends Newsletter
lot's of animals this FABruary (SAD will not keep us down)
Hey folks,
It’s already the end of February. Huh?!? The month that brought us the year of the Fire Horse, Valentines day, Ramadan, pancake day… but also the most pertinent event to this newsletter: Steam Next Fest. It’s true.
While lovers were dining out, galentines were wining out, Punch the monkey stole our hearts, and the horror of the real world persisted… we were prepping for a big video game month! If you’re wondering how best to spend this Next Fest season, we’ve got you covered… in snow!! (don’t be afraid).
☀️ The Only Way Is Up! ⛰️
Mountainside city-builder Laysara: Summit Kingdom is launching tomorrow in 1.0 on Steam AND across Xbox, PlayStation & Switch! Build and expand your very own settlements in the high mountains, carefully plan resource production chains and satisfy the various needs of your kingdom citizens. Sounds easy? Well you also need to deal with mountain hazards like extreme weather and extreme avalanches…
The launch comes with a brand new 15 mission campaign mode so there is more than enough to keep you entertained! For the physical media fans out there, you can pre-order the cool corporal copies for Switch and PlayStation 5 or take it one step further and nab yourself the Collector’s Edition. Shout out to our console pub friends at Nejcraft for putting that together!
… (tomorrow)
Next Fest Round-Up!
Gather round one and all to hear what we have in (Steam) store for you this Next Fest!!!
🪙 Eldor’idle, the incremental idle RPG about earning a billion gold coins, has just been announced by solo dev Nautlander, and has a brand new demo for you to check out this week! Go on, don’t you want to hang with gnomes and get rich quick?!
🎲 STICKER/BALL had a makeover for the official game announcement and a new demo drop! This chaotic pool game roguelike, formerly known as Ball, Dice & Stickers has had a huge upgrade so if you’ve tried it before, you’re gonna want to check it out again! Kotaku said “I have no idea at all what is happening here. And I love it for that” and we completely agree 🙂
🌲 Treeplanter, an interactive woodland game which makes real world impact has launched its first ever demo! Pop it on your wishlist and help contribute to our ecosystem when it launches later this year! 1 copy of Treeplanter sold = 1 real tree planted irl 🌲
And now for a couple of our fabulous client games!
🏹 Mythmatch, the Match-3 mythological puzzler from Team Artichoke (indie dev team led by Moo Yu of Knights and Bikes, Ratchet and Clank, LittleBigPlanet fame), has a demo as part of Next Fest! They have also just announced that the game will be launching on Steam on March 13th. Get it in the calendars peeps 📅
🛷 Sledding Game, a multiplayer hangout game about chilling with your buds at a ski resort, is back! and joining the Next Fest fun! This social media sensation is in the top 150 most wishlisted games on Steam, and has a new and improved demo live now for you to see what all the fuss is about!
Future Friends Roundup!
🕷️ A Webbing Journey, the game that makes spiders cute and fluffy, has a brand new ‘Living Room’ update! This level brings 10 new quests to complete, tons of hidden interactions, and some more spider lore for you to uncover!
🍅 On-Together, our virtual co-working game, launched a limited edition ‘Early Bird DLC’ available for everyone who buys the game before the 6th of March! This update includes a shiny gold ID badge so you can find your early bird peers in the game, as well as the adorable lo-fi soundtrack by Willow Collins!
🐟 Tiny Aquarium launched the very seasonal ‘Wintertide’ update which is Brrrr-illiant! (Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves.) This update includes lots of new arctic content, 12 new decorations and 13 new species. Our favourite here is the cute Baby Harp Seal 🦭
New Future Friend!
Greedy Future Friends over here simply cannot stop making more friends! Everyone say hello to the lovely Owen who joined team FFG this month! If you’ve ever watched a video game trailer and thought “hey this is super well edited and cool” then there’s a good chance that Owen made it!!!
What else is there to know about Owen? Good thing it’s fun facts time!!!
Big lover of silly goofy little guys (and is also a silly goofy little guy)
Queer and neurodivergent (the real future friends way)
Furry photographer (yes, really)
The biggest film buff
Has a cat called Aurora who is pretty much just a puppy
Has two Pokemon tattoos
Can deadlift their own bodyweight
D&D!!!
Drumming!!!
WOAH
Team Lore
🐀 Sokpop announced the cool new viral Rat Game that you can hear all about in the ‘Friends of Future Friends’ section below. So why are we bringing it up here, I hear you furiously think? Well, you may spot some ratty Future Friends in the trailer! Laura, Abi, Thomas, Beth, and Grace can be seen doing what they do best, aka being absolute MENACES. If we’ve learned anything from this, it’s that Future Friends can’t be trusted with guns or basic arithmetic.
🦘 Thomas has been in another timezone (AEDT) on the other side of the world from us so we’ve been missing him very much, but don’t worry!!! He’s well. He is The Baron and so is his wife.
🔤 More HUGE news, Emma’s been with us for a while now and they are killing it and we simply couldn’t imagine life without them.
🦄 Fellow newsletter editor Robyn, moved from Falmouth (Cornwall for those of you unfamiliar) to Edinburgh! She was sad to leave FFG’s Alex and Adam but she’s a wee bit closer to Laura now. The newsletter can now be written together in person! 🥹 Bring on Newsletter Scottish HQ!
Friends of Future Friends
New Launches!
🌊 Race across oceans, uncover the kingdom’s dark secrets and master your schmovement in Demon Tides, the new expressive 3D platformer from Fabraz, the indie studio behind the upcoming Bubsy 4D and Demon Turf. Demon Tides is out on PC now (with a Switch port coming later)!
🏹 Ever wondered what the afterlife might look like? Wonder no more! Delve into CROSSINGS and explore the Nordic afterlife in this first-person VR soulslike. Developed by VR indie developer Neat Corp (Budget Cuts, Garden of the Sea) and published by Creature (Maestro, Prison Boss Prohibition, THRASHER), CROSSINGS is out now on SteamVR following its previous launch on Meta Quest 3/3S!
New Game Announcements!
🐀 It’s rat time! Do you know what’s missing from your friendship group? An asymmetrical horror co-op RAT GAME! Yes, Indie dev Aran Koning (one part of Dutch indie collective Sokpop, the team behind Stacklands and Grunn) has announced a new project where you play as either a pack of rats trying to sabotage a restaurant, or the Chef determined to stop them. 1 Chef vs 2-8 Rats.
🛹 The mind behind mobile megahit award winning Skate City has announced his next project: next-gen skateboarding game Skate Style! This game is built by and for the skating community with custom animation, mod support and more. There’s also a demo for you to start practicing your tricks.
More Demos!
👕 Nostalgia’s calling! Run your very own thrift shop in Thrifty Business, a laid-back management sim with a demo available on Steam! Sort through boxes to find hidden treasures and arrange nostalgic displays. Befriend customers, fulfil their requests and expand your store to turn it into a hub for the local community. This gem is from Spellgarden Games, the team behind hit sticker shop sim Sticky Business!
🐱 People watchers will not want to miss Nippets, a handcrafted hidden-object game inspired by the joy of people watching! and it now has a demo on Steam! Pet cats, shake trees, peek through windows and discover a delightful world filled with secrets and stories.
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Okay fine! We’ll let you get on with downloading a million demos now! Remember to stay hydrated, get enough sleep, and other healthy things that people do (we wouldn’t know). If you get addicted to any of the above games, we take no responsibility. 😇
Until next time! 👋
Future Friends Games
